Littleton Planning Board continues four hearings, delays MBTA zoning to fall

LITTLETON -- March 9, 2023, Littleton Planning Board opened four public hearings in a single evening and confirmed it will delay MBTA Communities zoning work to fall town meeting, after a March 8 public session exposed significant community questions about unit counts and site configurations. Board member Jeff Harvey said the decision to postpone was driven in part by new information that the Turkey Farm Estates developer may transfer a five-acre parcel near the commuter rail station to the town within roughly six months, potentially reshaping the overlay district's boundaries. All four new hearings, covering a gravel-to-pavement conversion at 265 Foster Street, an 85,000-square-foot self-storage addition at 550 Newtown Road, a three-lot open space residential development at 555 Newtown Road, and demolition and redevelopment of the Gulf station complex at 254-260 Air Road as a new Exxon with a 6,000-square-foot convenience store, were continued to April 6 after neighbors raised repeated concerns about hillside stormwater runoff, lighting spillover, and inadequate landscape screening. The board also received an informal preview of a proposal to restore the 1673 Benjamin Kimball house at 12 Robinson Road as four residential units under the town's village common overlay district, the first application ever filed under that form-based code, with Chair Harvey saying "I like it. I think it's exactly what we're looking for."